Navigation

Open positions

Open positions

This is a list of areas in Unknown Horizons where we feel we could need someone to work on. If you are interested in one of them, please join us via IRC/forum/whatever and contact the persons in the round brackets. They will be able to give you further information and current tasks in the respective fields.

Scenario/campaign writing (totycro, ChrisOelmueller) [scenarios]

The world of Unknown Horizons is by now quite rich in objects, but the stories that can be told by them are still missing. If you are into creative writing, this is the perfect task for you. It involves making up the stories (perhaps with historical contexts, perhaps not) and writing texts for it as well as defining the scenario to be played. If you only want to focus on one of those parts, that's great as well, the rest can always be figured out later. The scenario system is very much open to extension; our coders will provide you with everything you need.

Balancing (ChrisOelmueller, Kilian]) [design]

Implementing a lumberjack is one thing; it is another one to define how much wood it should produce from how many trees in which time at what running costs, that's where it gets interesting. This task is about playing around, finding buildings that produce too much/too little, discovering strategies that make it too easy, etc.

Sound design, management, engineering (totycro) [sounds, design]

This is an area that is sometimes overlooked, but wrongly so! Sounds are a vital part of the game experience, be it when setting up a game in the main menu or during hours of interacting with the ingame elements. All important interactions should give some kind feedback; in case of problems the user should also audibly be notified. For this, it is necessary to think a bit about the situation of the user and the effect of certain sounds, then to select one. It's easy to put sounds in the game, but it's a tough nut to figure out what to play when. This is where you come into play!

War/combat design and code development (totycro) [code, design]

Our basic combat system is now implemented, but we currently don't have spare capacities for continuing the development. You will be able to define how ships, towers and civilian buildings should interact and create all kinds of special units, weapons and goodies ranging from bullets over stances up to diplomacy. There are many directions this can go, you are free to either develop your own or discuss it in cooperation with the community.

Multiplayer, networking (totycro) [code]

We currently have a nice simple multiplayer mode, but there are some spots that require some brushing up, e.g. surviving when one player disconnects, save/load or extensions of the lobby.

Usability tester (totycro) [usability]

Of course we try to make the interface and interactions as intuitive as possible, but that does not work in general, and also intuitive has different meanings depending on the person. Usability testing basically means watching over other people's sholders while they play the game. I'm not going into details here, this is a huge field. The tests can be done at any level of professionalism, everyone who is interested is able to conduct tests and find usability problems (which you don't have to fix, this is about discovering them).

Engine interface code (nihathrael, Kilian]) [code]

Our engine (FIFE) and the Unknown Horizons code have to be interwoven to some extend to make things run smoothly, so the best case would be to have someone working on both projects and foremostly on the interface code, in order to actively prevent breakages and different interpretations.

Graphics coordination (UnknownScribe) [graphics]

There are a number of artists working on Unknown Horizons, and it is necessary to establish some common ideas. Primitive tents are great, just like pompous mansions are, but they have to be assigned into fitting categories. Furthermore, every increment is supposed to have some kind of style that reflects the state of economic development, this should be organised to be somewhat consistent across increments and the whole game.

Game play design discussion moderation [design]

Proposals pop up pretty prevalently, therefore it would be desireable to have someone working with them systematically, thinking about them and managing discussions, such that we can agree on design issues.

GUI (ChrisOelmueller, squiddy) [gui design]

Defining a dialog is easy; defining an interaction that does what people want to do is a totally different matter. If you know what I'm talking about, then this is the task for you. It comprises checking the current gui for problems (by yourself or also doing tests with users) and finding proposals on how to tackle the issues working with our gui library)

Translations (ChrisOelmueller) [translations]

This is about trying to find translators for languages, reminding existing translators to update the strings before releases and making sure everything works smoothly.